Nuts about the smoking ban
Monday, July 7, 2008 The Rt Hon Hazel Blears, MP for Salford and Secretary of States for Communities and Local Government, famously loves motorbikes. (Dangerous beasts. Should we ban 'em?!)
Today, alluding to something completely different, blogger Iain Dale has published the final paragraphs of a speech Blears gave last week to the Local Government Association. They include the claim that:
In my time in parliament, we’ve seen controversies such as Academy schools. Opposed tooth and nail at the time; now an increasingly accepted part of the local education system. Or the smoking ban. One year one, considered a great success.
Clearly, Hazel hasn't been reading Kerry McCarthy's blog!
Now, I have no wish (no wish at all) to inflict upon Hazel the same avalanche of comments that Kerry received. Or to ask you to write to yet another MP who considers the smoking ban a "great success". (You'd never get any work done and we'd be here all year.)
On your behalf, therefore, Forest will drop Hazel a little note - with some of the comments that have appeared either here or on Kerry McCarthy's blog. (We will invite her to view Kerry's blog post in its entirety, comments and all, but I doubt she will bother.)
If you wish to add something that has not been published on either blog, you can add a comment to this post. Note: comments forwarded to MPs may be edited for reasons of space - and brevity. Where possible, please use a real name, even if it's only your Christian name.
Reader Comments (11)
All I want to say to Hazel Blears, is read what the real people are saying, not what the official Party line is on this subject. Please Hazel, read, digest, and hopefully, learn.
I have emailed Hazel, telling her that the smoking ban has been a great success for the Tory party, because the Labour party has upset millions of Labour voters who are now ex-Labour voters.
Hazel Blears comment that the smoking ban is "a success" demonstrates Labours deriliction of duty to public office and continued evidence of how they're not listening. To say Labour are out of touch is an understatement only exceeded by their ability to not know what the hell the country is thinking.
I'm not surprised Labour lost the last by-election and their deposit and joined the ranks of the minority looney Parties which is precisely where they belong in British citizens opinions.
Labour have only listened to the vested interests of health extremists (a minority) and pharmaceutical Co's (financial motive) in their bent (one-sided) consultancy period before the ban and have only listened to those same minority groups (ASH, Cancer Research and the woefully inept and politicised NHS) and their corrupt figures to define this as "success".
The truth is Cancer research figures on heart attacks are, like the Scottish 17% reduction claims, simply untrue and CR refuse to release the study for a thorough examination (a public charity with a secret agenda?).
The NHS quit figures are also the opposite of the truth. The quit rate has dropped since the ban. So 2 clear failures.
This pales compared to what these Labour minority group ministers have ignored in the 'celebration' of the 1 year anniversary. They've ignored;
- 2,000 Pubs and Clubs nationwide closing and people losing their livelihoods
- Over 10,000 staff who this ban was to "protect" (not that labour asked their opinion or for their approval) have lost their jobs
- 10M people (more than voted Labour into office) have lost their liberty to smoke in places where Landlords would be quite happy for them to
- 10M people and their non-smoking friends now do not socialise as they used to which has a major impact on communities (the Govt hasn't studied the damage - we must assume their ignorance is bliss)
- PriceWaterhouse estimates the carnage will continue for 2 years
- no bar staff or passive smokers life has been saved since the ban as the dangers of smoke to health are a grossly over-stated risk
Labour has demonstrated in this issue their ability to NOT listen despitetheir promises after their recent Council Election slaughter.Are we on the same planet and using the same language here?
I've read countless posts about core Labour voters, both smokers and non-smokers, that will never vote Labour ever again because of the smoking issue. I personally can't see them recovering from the wilderness they've put themselves in for any election in the next 15 or 20 years.
Nobody trusts a word they say. Maybe they need to brush up on how to use language honestly. Their 2005 manifesto appears to be made of the same junk-science as they're cases against smoking and for Iraq/WMD and climate science. Truly disgraceful taking voters for fools. Who'll be the joke in 2 years?
Hazel Blears, The Labour party has sucessfully become despised over the smoking ban.
I neither drink or drive, but I believe you and your kind are going to make these only for the rich, let the workers rot, Labours new theme tune?
Labour has alienated it's core vote. Infantalising us, taking us for fools; lies about WMDs, lies about "passive smoking", lies about the EU referendum that never was, worthless manifesto "promises", seeking to micromanage every aspect of our existences, assuming the mantel of overseers above those who elect you whilst all the time supping gravy from the rarified troughs of Westminster and Brussels. Waxing fat whilst doubling taxes for the poorest. Utterly disconnected from those whose interests you claim to represent. Asserting a skewed reality at odds with people's own experiences.
You've been told, but you won't listen because, for you, cold ideology trumps truth, humanity, compassion and common-sense. In placing equality of outcome above tolerance, choice, diversity and liberalism, you are helping create a society that is fractured, resentful and paranoid.
The ship's scraping the iceberg, but the band play a jolly tune as if everything's gonna be alright. You're holed, Hazel, but you'll go on thinking you know best until the ship breaks it's back and the two halves dive to the bottom of the sea.
Reply from my email to Ms Blears.
Thank you for your email.
The Labour Party welcomes all comments and feedback. I can assure you that any issues raised are considered carefully and we greatly appreciate you taking the time to contact us.
All comments are noted and will be passed to the relevant department(s).
Want to know where you can smoke inside legally?
See http://devilskitchen.me.uk/
The hypocrisy of our rulers knows no bounds........
Dear Mrs Blears
I think Adrian Brown put it very well in his message.
"In placing equality of outcome above tolerance, choice, diversity and liberalism, you are helping create a society that is fractured, resentful and paranoid."
This paragraph was particularly well put and he is definitely spot on with the comment about paranoia. Actions taken by the labour party over the years has led to huge increases in mental health problems for a great many people, who, a few years ago, would have never believed they would be labelled as having a mental illness. This has come about due to cctv which, the extent that it is now being used implies to many 'government spying'. Paranoid, probably, but this is what labour are doing to the people they are supposed to be representing, not manipulating! The smoking ban is another cause of paranoia and subsequent mental health issues for many as it is causing isolation, which is very harmful to people suffering stress, depression and anxiety as it alienates them even more and lowers their self esteem even further. These are route causes of what may be described as very mild stress or depression, that people have managed to cope with treatment free up until now.
For your information, stress and depression are more likely to be a cause of cancer than is smoking or SHS! These conditions are also more likely to cause premature death in sufferers.
I, for one, can only deduce that as the government are struggling to pay pensions, the ultimate goal is to kill more people off at a younger age to help alleviate this problem. Many lifelong smokers seem to die within a few years of giving up smoking and not from so called smoking related illnesses either!
Regards
Lyn
I made the following point on the 'Wright Stuff' chat show on FIVE this morning re the topic 'ban smoking on TV before the watershed'.
There are some 12 million or more smokers in this country. We are not a separate or sub species, we are exactly he same as you, but we smoke.
If Ms Blears and her party think they can denegrate,insult and bully some 20% of the electorate, when arguably, the majoriy of this number will be 'naural labour supporters',she is sadly mistaken. I live in the Norh Eas of England - you have los 6 life long labour voers with this ban.
Extrapolate that.
sorry for ipos - my T isn' working properly!
Dunhillbabe, I do not believe the official figures of smokers in this country. Do they include children as well? I bet they do. We all go out and I doubt if many of us are blind, well I know I am not, and I see so many people smoking.
None of us believes all these other official figures which are slung at us night and day, like how many deaths result from smoking, so why are we believing how many smokers they say there are?
I would like to bet that it is more like 40% rather than their lousy 20%
Greyman